Aloha - Hoover Library

ENNIS, representing lighter Athletics as opposed to footballand baseball, hasjalways had a very fair number of adherentsat Western Maryland College. In fact, the number ofplayers each year seems to be proportioned to the numberof courts that are kept in goo 1 condition, and this has been the great problemat the College-how to get the tennis courts into condition and keep them so.The present writer can remember the time when there were only two courts-oneowned and controlled by the professors, the other by the students. K atural ly , thetennis players were rather few in number. But four years ago, the professors resignedtheir claim and turned the court over to the Athletic Association of the College;enough ground was levelled and put into condition to make five courts; backstopnets were put up; equipment of various kinds was provided, and tennisseemed to be on a permanent basis. But most of the five courts were greatlydamaged by a surface so pebbly that it seemed impossible ever to get them intoreally first-class condition. The pebbles could be swept off and carted away, butanother crop always came to maturity.in a short time. In addition to pebbles,these courts always in summer became covered with a thick growth of grass andweeds, so that when College opened in the fall an expense of eight or ten dollarshad to be incurred before the courts could he used. The tennis players felt thatsomething should be done. A committee was appointed, and, after due deliberatondecided that if the courts were thickly covered with ashes and rolled. the asheswould make a fine surface to play on and would, moreover, entirely stop the growthof weeds and grass. But, alas, the committee in its deliberations had failed, itseems, to consult either the ashes or the grass; so the ashes refused to pack in asatisfactory manner, and the grass insisted 011 growing up through the ashes with189